The Scottish Rite Masonic Temples in Yankton and in Deadwood, South Dakota are unique in the state and unusual nationally. Yankton's lodge was chartered in 1862, making it the oldest in South Dakota. Deadwood's lodge was chartered in 1877, a year after the gold strike that changed everything in the Black Hills forever.
The Yankton Masons constructed their temple in 1901. Construction on the Deadwood building began in 1900 and was completed in 1910.
Both buildings have theaters. Both theaters are in possession of very rare and extremely valuable stage backdrops specific to the needs of Scottish Rite productions. (Members stage what amount to one-act plays dealing with moral and philosophical questions. Initiates who see and contemplate the meaning of the plays may advance in the organization by degrees.) Because the backdrops are of uniquely high artistic merit and because they are unusually well-preserved, a noted scholar and art historian who has examined the flats places the Yankton and Deadwood collections among the top five in the United States.
The video below provides an inside look at both buildings and some detail about their various features. Jeffrey D. Larson, the current Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Orient of South Dakota, comments on the various rites of passage for Scottish Rite Masons and offers some insight into what Freemasonry is and is not. Bob Tesch, Jr. talks about the history of the Deadwood Lodge and about some of the features that make the Deadwood Scottish Rite Temple so unique.
Listen to an SDPB Radio interview with Jeffrey D. Larson, the current Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Orient of South Dakota. Larson speaks with Lori Walsh on "In The Moment."
View photos of the interior of the Yankton Masonic Temple in the Flickr gallery below.
